Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

June 26, 2014 By Fausta

Venezuela: North Korea to open embassy in Caracas

Caracas hairdressers better take notice:

The June 20 issue of the Gaceta Oficial, the Venezuelan government’s official organ, announced that North Korea is allowed to open an embassy in Caracas.

The murderous Communist North Korean regime, which has attempted to interfere with private businesses in democratic countries, will have an embassy near the newly-expanded Panama Canal.

No wonder the chavistas are decamping to Spain.

In other Venezuelan news,
University students and government opponents protested in Caracas on Tuesday, demanding the release of people who have been arrested in street demonstrations in recent months. Also on Tuesday, Venezuela’s Supreme Court (TSJ) granted the army permission to participate in political marches and rallies, and denied that it would encourage proselytizing of the military.

A review of Al-Jazeera’s Fault Lines documentary, Venezuela Divided:
Al-Jazeera sent me information and a preview link to its Fault Lines documentary, Venezuela Divided, which will air on Al Jazeera America Saturday, June 28, at 7 p.m. Eastern time.

The reporter was accompanied by chavistas throughout the film, which is very sympathetic to the regime (as you can see from the article title The art of the Boliviarian revolution in Venezuela, as if the Boliviarian revolution was a symphony).

Venezuela Divided starts by contrasting a slum with an ice cream shop in a middle-to-upper class neighborhood, in the premise that it’s all “rich vs. poor”; the possibility that some of the people in the ice cream shop may be high-ranking chavistas or their relatives does not cross the reporter’s mind.

It shows a confrontation between university students and the National Guard, and a chavista college student whose nose was broken allegedly by anti-government students, while it forgets to show assemblywoman Maria Corina Machado’s nose being broken on the floor of the National Assembly by chavista Nancy Asencio, or the fact that the chavista regime deposed Machado of her Assembly seat and banned her from leaving the country.

Additionally, al-Jazeera’s emphasis on showing the Venezuelan demonstrators as engaged in a “simple” class struggle ignores this,

Imagen de la Avenida Francisco de Miranda toma desde el edif EASO Hora: 11:20 am vía @Fabiana_Marmo pic.twitter.com/Lpofdona9U

— Reporte Ya (@ReporteYa) February 18, 2014

The report, while talking to members of a colectivo, spent no time on news like this, or this, or on Human Rights Watch’s finding of “systematic” human rights violations in Venezuela.

In the past, al-Jazeera’s reports on Latin America have been interesting, but this one I find lacking.


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Filed Under: al-Jazeera, Communism, North Korea, Venezuela Tagged With: Fausta's blog, Maria Corina Machado, Venezuela Divided

August 22, 2011 By Fausta

The gold Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

LatinAmerARGENTINA
Argentina’s presidential election
Fait accompli

BOLIVIA
La Evonomics y la “crisis del capitalismo”

CAYMAN ISLANDS
When an American Company Redomiciles to the Cayman Islands, What Lesson Should We Learn?

COLOMBIA
Colombia cashes in on ‘.co’ Internet domain
The ‘co.’ Internet domain in Colombia is a lure for companies in Florida looking for new website addresses.

Colombia’s Operation Stairway and the secret agent who carried it out

CUBA
‘Rise of the Apes’ Director: Film’s Hero Inspired by Che Guevara

Castro dictatorship celebrates Fidel’s birthday with more violent repression

More PR Shame: Associated Press Cooperates With Dictatorial Propaganda Machines

ECUADOR
EXCLUSIVE: Emilio Palacio presents video evidence that President Correa gave order to fire on police

EL SALVADOR
Violence in El Salvador, El Salvador’s gangs joining the drug trade:

GUATEMALA
Guatemala’s presidential election
The final word on the first lady

HONDURAS
Drug Traffickers’ Paradise

No-fly Zone Proposed for Northeastern Honduras

MEXICO
MAN DISMEMBERED IN ACAPULCO, PIECES OF BODY FOUND IN TOWN, via GoV

The Buffer Between Mexican Cartels and the U.S. Government

Operation Fast and Furious Weapons Found at Scenes of Violent Crimes in the U.S.

VIDEO: Mexico’s security spokesman speaks to Al Jazeera

PANAMA
A Panama historic district battles development boom
In a city that’s run out of room to grow, residents of a historic district wonder if the old seawall can hold back progress
.

PARAGUAY
El paraguayo Zanotti tercero en el abierto checo de golf

PERU
Los mayores enemigos de Ollanta Humala son sus dos hermanos

PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico edges closer to U.S. voting rights

Puerto Ricans’ chances of winning a right to vote in U.S. elections are as close now as at any time in American history. A First Circuit Court of Appeals decision last week has set up the conditions needed for the Supreme Court to review the possibility of voting rights for Puerto Rico’s four million residents.

The appeals court deadlocked 3-to-3 on whether to hear a case in which a lower court already denied Puerto Ricans a right to vote. A tied vote means any previous rulings are left to stand.

Hurricane Irene Slams Puerto Rico Twitter hashtag #Irene

VENEZUELA
Venezuelan emissaries reported to be aiding talks between Qaddafi and rebels

Libya rebels claim Gaddafi is fleeing to Venezuela

S&P Cuts Venezuela’s Credit Rating; Outlook Stable, via Joy.

S&P last to downgrade Venezuela to B level

The week’s posts and podcasts,
Where’s the Colombia FTA? Sitting on the President’s desk
You, too, can wear Hugo on your feet
Gold rush: Chavez to nationalize gold industry
Say hello to the Canada-Colombia FTA
Is Cuba going capitalist?
Ecuador’s assault against free press

At the Green Room, Ahmadinejad to visit Caracas, Venezuela to move its gold

At Conservative Commune, Gold Rush: Chavez to Nationalize Venezuela’s Gold Industry

Podcasts:
Silvio Canto’s
Political Vindication

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Filed Under: al-Jazeera, Argentina, Associated Press Deficit Disorder, Bolivia, Caribbean, Carnival of Latin America, Cayman Islands, cocaine, Colombia, crime, Cuba, drugs, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, Rafael Correa, Venezuela Tagged With: Fast and Furious, Fausta's blog, Irene

June 21, 2011 By Fausta

Mexico’s Hidden War

Al-Jazeera has a series of reports on Mexico’s drug wars. The following episode focuses on the state of Guerrero:
Mexico’s hidden war
Josh Rushing finds out how campesino communities caught in the narco-economy are resisting repression and dispossession

Part 1: Impunity and profits,

——————————————-

Posting has been light because I’ve been having internet connection issues for since yesterday. Thank you for your patience.

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Filed Under: al-Jazeera, crime, drugs, Mexico Tagged With: Fausta's blog

January 30, 2011 By Fausta

Al Jazeera: Egypt military have said “they will not go against the people”

I’m watching the livefeed from Al Jazeera English and their reporter said “nothing suggests a confrontation between the military and the people on the ground.”

Al-Jazeera has continued to broadcast live from Egypt even when the network’s licences were cancelled and accreditation of staff in Cairo withdrawn by order of information minister

“The information minister [Anas al-Fikki] ordered … suspension of operations of Al Jazeera, cancelling of its licences and withdrawing accreditation to all its staff as of today,” a statement on the official Mena news agency said on Sunday.

Stratfor has a Red Alert on Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Meanwhile in the USA, the President is voting present. Darleen has the photoshop.

UPDATE
Thad McCotter: “This is not a nostalgic ‘anti-colonial uprising’ from within”

This is not a nostalgic ‘anti-colonial uprising’ from within, of all places, the land of Nassar. Right now, freedom’s radicalized enemies are subverting Egypt and our other allies.

Muslim Brotherhood Announces They Will Support El-Baradei. Blame Bush!

The Muslim Brotherhood is the Enemy

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Filed Under: al-Jazeera Tagged With: Fausta's blog, Hosni Mubarak, Thad McCotter

July 6, 2010 By Fausta

More on NASA for Muslim self-esteem

Following Charles Bolden’s statement to al-Jazeera that,

When I became the NASA Administrator — before I became the NASA Administrator — [Obama] charged me with three things: One was he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math, he wanted me to expand our international relationships, and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering.

This will surely make the Taliban abandon its bellicoseness, won’t it?

Jules Crittenden comments,

Oddly, space exploration didn’t crack the top three. That explains why they put Mars on the back burner. Screw the Cosmos … they’re launching missions to the Casbah!

Charles Krauthammer ripped the goals:

“This is a new height in fatuousness,” Krauthammer said. “NASA was established to get America into space and to keep is there. This idea to feel good about their past and to make achievements is the worst combination of group therapy, psychobabble, imperial condescension and adolescent diplomacy.”

“If I didn’t know that Obama had told this, I’d demand the firing of Charles Bolden the way I would Michael Steele,” he continued. “This is absolutely unbelievable.”

Byron York writes about how NASA is now “not only a space exploration agency, but also an Earth improvement agency,” at least in Obamaspeak:

The Muslim outreach at NASA is the result of the White House’s preparation for Obama’s Cairo speech. Staffers found that many Muslims admire American achievements in science and technology, so Obama used the speech to announce the appointment of U.S. “science envoys” and a new fund “to support technological development in Muslim-majority countries.”

Obama appointed Egyptian-American scientist Ahmed Zewail as the first science envoy to the Middle East. Just last week, Zewail argued that the U.S. can build better relations with the Muslim world by “harnessing the soft power of science in the service of diplomacy.” The NASA initiative is part of that.

Last month, Bolden himself traveled to Cairo to mark the first anniversary of Obama’s speech. In an address at the American University, Bolden cited Zewail’s work and stressed NASA’s role in improving relations with Islamic nations.

Not content with this pseudo-self-esteem-for-the-Muslim world initiative, the administration also believes that

“We’re not going to go anywhere beyond low Earth orbit as a single entity,” Bolden said. “The United States can’t do it.”

Can’t go beyond low Earth orbit, can’t secure the border, can’t clean up the oil spill.

But back to space; Who, pray tell, will American astronauts have to rely on to get them out and back from the rickety old space station? Russia!

Yes, Russia will take them for a ride, alright. (Make sure to read this while you’re at it.)

So, tell me, how’s that “hope” portion of the “hope and change” working for you?

UPDATE
Mr. Bingley goes to it.

UPDATE 2, NASA backtracking:
Former NASA Director Says Muslim Outreach Push ‘Deeply Flawed’

Bob Jacobs, NASA’s assistant administrator for public affairs, echoed that point. However, he said that Bolden was speaking of priorities when it came to “outreach” and not about NASA’s primary missions of “science, aeronautics and space exploration.” He said the “core mission” is exploration and that it was unfortunate Bolden’s comments are now being viewed through a “partisan prism.”

Hey, quoting a guy’s own words is now “partisan.”

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Filed Under: al-Jazeera, Barack Obama, Islam, Middle East., science Tagged With: Charles Bolden, Fausta's blog, NASA

December 23, 2009 By Fausta

About that moving Gitmo to Illinois…

the Obama administration is struggling to come up with the money:
Thomson

While Mr. Obama has acknowledged that he would miss the Jan. 22 deadline for closing the prison that he set shortly after taking office, the administration appeared to take a major step forward last week when he directed subordinates to move “as expeditiously as possible” to acquire the Thomson Correctional Center, a nearly vacant maximum-security Illinois prison, and to retrofit it to receive Guantánamo detainees.

But in interviews this week, officials estimated that it could take 8 to 10 months to install new fencing, towers, cameras and other security upgrades before any transfers take place. Such construction cannot begin until the federal government buys the prison from the State of Illinois.

The federal Bureau of Prisons does not have enough money to pay Illinois for the center, which would cost about $150 million. Several weeks ago, the White House approached the House Appropriations Committee and floated the idea of adding about $200 million for the project to the military spending bill for the 2010 fiscal year, according to administration and Congressional officials.

The Dems don’t want it:

But Democratic leaders refused to include the politically charged measure in the legislation. When lawmakers approved the bill on Dec. 19, it contained no financing for Thomson.

However, the issue is national security. In his post, We Interrupt this Socialization of Medicine to Bring You an Abdication of Our National Defense . . . Andy McCarthy explains that twelve detainees were released from Gitmo to – astonishing to believe, but true – Yemen:

Yemen, an al-Qaeda hotbed whose government makes common cause with jihadists (and has a history of allowing them to escape — or of releasing them outright); Afghanistan, which is so ungovernable and rife with jihadism that we’re surging thousands of troops there (troops the jihadists are targeting); and Somaliland, which is not even a country, and which offers an easy entree into Somalia, a failed state and al-Qaeda safe-haven. At least one of the released terrorists, a Somali named Abdullahi Sudi Arale (aka Ismail Mahmoud Muhammad), was released notwithstanding the military’s designation of him as a “high-value detainee” (a label that has been applied only to top-tier terrorist prisoners — and one that fits in this case given Arale’s status as a point of contact between al-Qaeda’s satellites in East Africa and Pakistan).

As if that’s not bad enough,

the Justice Department has taken the lead role in making release determinations — the military command at Gitmo has “zero input” and “zero influence,” in its own words. DOJ is rife with attorneys who represented and advocated for the detainees, and, in particular, Attorney General Holder’s firm, represented numerous Yemeni enemy combatants.

Maybe Holder expects the released detainees to take a job with al-Jazeera.

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Filed Under: 9/11, al-Jazeera, al-Qaeda, terrorism Tagged With: Fausta's blog, Gitmo, Guantánamo, Illinois, Thomson Correctional Center

March 13, 2009 By Fausta

CNN’s Patricia Janiot: Chávez is “very attractive”

Via Noticias24,
Senior anchor for CNN en Español Patricia Janiot declared in an interview with journalist Cristian Savio that Chávez is “very attractive,” and has “overwhelming charisma,”
(My translation: If you use this translation please link to this post)

CS: What political leader impressed you the most?
PJ: Beyond his political position – I believe that a politician, the more he shows himself as a person and further away from the gods of Olympus, the better – there’s no doubt that Hugo Chávez os “the character.” He’s the epitome of the populist leader, with plain tastes, overwhelming charisma and the ability to involve himself in his sorroundings since he has a point of reference that also interests you. He’s a combination comedian, military, President and religious leader: a very appealing combination, even more so than his oratorial ability. He’s very attractive to any journalist.

CS: And [Argentinian President] Cristina Fernández?
PJ: She made a very good impression, I met her before she became president. Beyond her strong personality, she comes across as letting you know what to expect of her. She tells you what she means to your face. She’ll tell you outright if she doesn’t want to answer a question. She won’t evade it or change the subject.

CS: What are your thoughts on the turn to the left in Latin American politics?
PJ: It strikes me as a natural swing after the neoliberal decade that left so many of us in ruins. It’s a natural process in any country: when something doesn’t work, we look for the opposite. But nowadays the difference between the Left and the Right is how distanced they are from the United States. Even the governments on the Right are closer to fighting inequality and poverty, so the difference is the degree of alienation from the US.

Readers of this blog may remember that CNN en Español’s freelancer Mauricio Funes is the Communist party candidate running for President of El Salvador.

Janiot follows in the steps of tyrant-worshiper Barbara Walters, who idolizes Fidel Castro,

Another distinguished CNN alumna, Lucia Newman, is now working for al-Jazeera.

These and other headlines from the region in today’s podcast at 11AM Eastern . Chat’s open by 10:45AM. See you there!UPDATE
Welcome, NewsBusters readers!

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Filed Under: al-Jazeera, Argentina, CNN, Cuba, Hugo Chavez, journalism, Venezuela Tagged With: Fausta's blog

October 8, 2007 By Fausta

Through the back door:

Socialized Medicine through the back door:
Doug Ross explains SCHIP for Dummies and Self-Employed Woodworkers.

Mark Steyn knocks on the woodworker part of the story.

And here’s the punchline:

“And in order to get enough money to pay for this, it would require 22 million new smokers.”

——————————————————

Terrorist memorial through the back door:
At the crescent of death, Why only 38 Memorial Groves?
——————————————————

One more push towards the Fairness Doctrine, through the back door:
Republicans rule radio but Democrats fight back
——————————————————

Another U.N. Power Grab through the back door:
What would Reagan do? On the Law of the Sea Treaty, we know the answer

Such developments only serve to reinforce the concerns President Reagan rightly had about the central, and abiding, defect of the Law of the Sea Treaty: its effort to promote global government at the expense of sovereign nation states–and most especially the United States. One of the prime movers behind LOST, the late Elisabeth Mann Borgese of the World Federalist Association (which now calls itself Citizens for Global Solutions), captured what is at stake when she cited an ancient aphorism: “He who rules the sea, rules the land.” A U.N. publication lauding her work noted that Borgese saw LOST as a “possible test-bed for ideas she had developed concerning a common global constitution.”

——————————————————

Charlie Gibson might be shown the back door if he keeps it up:

CHARLES GIBSON, ABC ANCHOR: The U.S. military reports the fourth straight month of decline in troop deaths, 66 American troops died in September, each a terrible tragedy for a family, but the number far less than those who died in August. And the Iraqi government says civilian deaths across Iraq fell by half last month.

As War Dragged On, Coverage Tone Weighed Heavily on Anchors:

By training their powerful spotlight on the chaos gripping Iraq, the anchors were arguably contributing to the political downfall of a president who had seemed to be riding high when he won his second term.

But not to worry: Howard Kurtz has been told:

To Kurtz’s obvious frustration, his guests – Robin Wright of the Washington Post and Barbara Starr of CNN – both supported the press burying this extremely positive announcement.

Watch:

——————————————————

Al Jazeera through the YouTube back door:
YouTube Deepens Commercial Relationship With Al Jazeera
——————————————————

Sharia law through the Med School Back door:
Muslim medical students refuse to learn about alcohol or sexual diseases:

Some Muslim students claim studying sex and alcohol related diseases is ‘offensive’.
…
Professor Peter Rubin, chairman of the GMC’s education committee, said: ‘Examples have included a refusal to see patients who are affected by diseases caused by alcohol or sexual activity, or a refusal to examine patients of a particular gender.’

Spare them their feelings and kick them out of med school, then.

——————————————————

Special thanks to Larwyn for the links.
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Filed Under: al-Jazeera, Iraq, Islam, media, SCHIP, YouTube

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